Goal Setting in Performance Management

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. Positive goal-setting, effective planning and decision making encourage a life well lived. The abilities to set clear goals and plan how to achieve them are important as if we fail to put goals we have nothing to plan for, and our time is poorly spent.

One of the realities of life is we are affected by our decisions, our families are, and so are others we impact on the job and in our community. Planning provides a major difference in the quality of our decision-making, as well as the fulfilment of our goals.

What is Goals?

A goal is a statement of an end result achieved in a specified period of time at a specific level of quality. It is a well-defined target that gives you clarity, direction, motivation, and focus. Goals are predetermined and describe future results toward which present efforts are directed. In organizational context, Goals are those ends that an organization seeks to achieve by its existence and operation.

Goals and Plans Goals should not be grand or complex. They need only be statements of results you hope to achieve. These are a desired future state that the organization attempts to realize while, Plans are a blueprint specifying the resource allocation, schedules, and other actions necessary for attaining goals.

A plan defines how a goal will be achieved. It provides the structure needed to accomplish daily organizational activities and outlines the necessary activities, the resources to be allocated, and how the work will be assigned. There are different levels of planning and goals in an organization. Goals at each level of the organization guide the organization.

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Types of Goals in Organization

The various types of goals in an organization are as follows:

• Strategic Goals: Broad statements of how the organisation ‰ should be and where the organization wants to be in the future, pertaining the goal as a whole rather than to specific divisions or departments.
  
  Strategic goals are like:
  • Define the action steps the company intends to attain
  • The blueprint that defines activities
    
    
• Tactical Goals: Goals that describe the outcomes that major divisions and departments must achieve for the organization to achieves its overall goals. Tactical goals are like:  
  • Specific part of the company’s strategy
  • Plans of the divisions and departments
    
    
• Operational Goals: Specific, measurable results expected from departments, work groups, and individuals. Operational goals are such as:
  • Lower levels of the organization
  • Specific action steps

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Corporate Mission and Strategic Goals

A mission is the organization’s reason for existence. In other words, a mission is:

• Top of the goal hierarchy
• Describes the values, aspirations and reason for being
• A well-defined mission is the basis for all other goals

And a mission statement is a mostly stated definition of the organization’s basic business scope and operations that distinguishes it from similar types of organizations.

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Mission and Vision Shape Goals

Goals and strategies are important elements in the drive of company’s success. Goals aligned with the company’s mission, vision and values give an indication of where a company is headed, while strategies indicate how the company is going to get there.

A company’s mission and vision lay the basis for business goals. Even when a company does not have a formal, stated mission or vision, it is likely that the business owner has a good plan of why the company exists, who it serves and where it is headed. Those foundational elements gives a framework against which companies establish goals designed to help them move in the direction of their vision to achieve their mission.

Vision, mission objectives has to be based on the best in the line of business – the bench-marked business organization. Higher the competition, it is better because we do all that are required to raise our systems & procedures to meet the challenge. These provide the starting point of the performance-management process. The aim is to ensure that each of the activities in the sequence is aligned to those goals and contributes to their achievement.

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Corporate and Departmental Plans and Goals

Organizations are vision and mission driven. All activities in the organization, therefore, have to be integrated for achievement of those corporate objectives. Performance management systems in a top-down approach the activities of various departments, teams and individuals travels down in terms of concrete, and tangible sub-objectives which are to be shared with the employees their competencies matched & linked with the schemes for rewarding high performance and developing deficient ones.

The development goals should address the employees’ competencies and skills which are required in their current roles. At the same time, analyse the individuals’ career aspirations and the organization’s future needs. Are there development goals that will enhance the employees’ roles today and prepare them to move ahead?

In working with each individual, the manager and the employee should answer to the focusing questions below, then discuss their results and consent upon the competencies and skills the employee should be working to develop—along with some preface ideas about how to develop them.

Some of the focusing questions on skills are as:

• Defining Skills:
  • What competencies or skills do I need to master to improve my contribution or expand my scope in my current role?, Progress toward my career aspirations?
    
    
• Using the Skills Today:
  • How will I use these competencies or skills in my current
  • How will my growth contribute to better results for my team?
    
    
• Building the Skills for Tomorrow:
  
  • How will mastering these competencies or skills prepare me for expanded responsibilities or a broader understanding and impact on the organization?
    
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• Developing a Roadmap:
  
  • What steps will I take to get there?
  • What is my preliminary action plan?

Departmental goals flow directly from the corporate goals but some alterations may take place so that departmental views about what can be achieved are taken into account before the finalized goals. Employee’s growth and development are also given due weightage.

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Performance and Development Agreement

The performance and development agreement process can support strong capability building. It has been found that managers in high performing workplaces:

• Spend more time and effort managing their people
  
  
• Have obvious values and ‘practice what they preach’
  
  
• provide employees opportunities to guide work assignments and activities
  
• promote employee development and learning
  
  
• welcome criticism and feedback as learning opportunities
  
  
• give improved recognition and acknowledgement to employees foster involvement and cooperation amongst employees
  
  
• state a clear vision and goals for the future
  
  
• encourage employees to think about problems in new ways. ‰

The performance and development agreement, sometimes called the performance contract, is the agreement on objectives and accountabilities reached by individuals with their managers. The agreement is usually reached at a formal review meeting and recorded during or after the meeting on a performance review form.

The processes of discussion and agreement are easier if both parties (the manager and the individual) prepare for the meeting by reviewing progress against agreed work or learning objectives, considering what plans need to be made to improve performance or develop competencies and skills, thinking about future objectives, and examining any areas where the manager could provide more support through help, guidance, coaching or the provision of additional resources or facilities.

Many organizations ask both managers and individuals to complete a pre-review meeting questionnaire which will provide an agenda for the review. A performance agreement defines the work to be done, the results to be attained, the performance standards to be achieved and the competence levels required. For individuals, the work to be done is agreed in terms of key result areas or principal accountabilities or, sometimes, in the case of relatively routine jobs, by reference to main tasks or duties.

In more dynamic roles, existing accountabilities may have to be re-assessed and new ones agreed as part of a revised agreement. In some cases, it may simply be necessary to confirm existing arrangements. The individual agreement should be based on an open, two-way ad unambiguous discussion.

This covers the areas listed below:

• what the person is doing now?
  
  
• what the person might have to do in the future because of changing requirements?
  
  
• how the work should be done (competence or process requirements)? ‰
  
  
• what the expected outputs and outcomes of the work (performance requirements and standards) are?
  
  
• what knowledge, skills and ability are required to do the work (input requirements)?
  
  
• any core values the individual would be expected to uphold—these may refer to such areas as quality, teamwork, customer service, responsibility to the community and care for environmental issues. The purpose of the discussion would be to define expectations on how the person’s behavior should support these values. The core values may be expressed in a list of competencies. ‰
  
  
• what support the person requires—from the manager, from co-workers, from resources or information.

As Antonioni (1994) emphasizes, it is essentials that agreements is concluded on process goals (how the work is done) as well as output goals (what has to be achieved). And looking at it from a Total Quality Management (TQM) view, he also stressed that the most important need ‘centers on information regarding key external and internal customers’ needs and expectations. Each internal customer has performance requirements that must be made explicit.’ It is here that KPA (Key Performance Area), KRA (Key Results Area), & KPI(Key Indicators are worked out).

Identifying KRAs helps individual employees in a number ways as enumerated here: ‰

• Clarify their roles.
  
  
• Align their roles to the organization’s business or strategic plan.
  
  
• Focus on results rather than activities.
  
  
• Communicate their role’s purposes to others in clear language define goals and objectives.
  
  
• Priorities their activities, and therefore improve their time/work management.
  
  
• Make value-added decision. ‰

Key results areas capture about 80 percent of a work role. The remainder of the role is usually devoted to areas of shared responsibility. For example, ‘image of the organization is usually a very senior official’s key result area, but hopefully all employees contribute to this outcome.

Key results area are worded using as few terms as possible, with no verbs, that is, abut results, not actions, and no direction/measurement. They simply describe the areas for which one is responsible for results.

Individuals undertake the following steps to determine the KRAs for their roles:

• Enlist main day-to-day responsibilities/activities.
  
  
• For each activity, ask ‘Why do I do this?’ ‰ ‰
  
  
• Review the answers to ‘why’ questions, looking for common themes or areas.
  
• Identify KRAs from these themes.
  
  
• Share KRAs, preferably with those they report to, those they ‰

The KRA approach has three main advantages:

• Areas such as innovation, customer response time, and employee
  
  
• It is the first stage of objective setting.
  
  
• It makes it easier to assess current performance. ‰

The discussion on individual or team goals in the light of how they fit in with these internal customer expectations may lead to work along with, and with those who report to them. development are included rather than being overlooked. a reconsideration of departmental goals, and even of corporate goals—especially if people are being asked to do more than they can reasonably be expected to accomplish.

Basically the same process can be followed from teams, i.e., agreeing what work should be done, how it should be done, what should be achieved, and what team skills are required.

Further consideration is given to the objective and competence agreement and definition aspects of the performance and development agreement.

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Performance and Development Plan

The performances aspect of the plan obtained agreement on what has to be done to achieve objectives, raise standards and improve performance. It also establishes priorities—the key aspects of the job to which attention has to be given. Agreement is also reached at this stage on the basis upon which performance will be measured and the evidence that will be used to establish levels of competence. It is important that these measures and evidence requirements should be identified and fully agreed now; because they will be used jointly by managers and individuals and collectively by teams to monitors progress and demonstrate achievements.

The Performance Development Planning (PDP) process enables you and the people who report to you to identify their personal and business goals that are most significant to your organization’s success.

The process enables each staff person to understand their true value- added to the organization. They do so when they understand how their job and the requested outcomes from their contribution “fit” inside your department or work unit’s overall goals.

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Performance Development and Support

Performance development is a tool for rewarding, encouraging, supporting and developing all employees. Organizations use many different terms to describe performance development, including performance management and performance appraisal (to name a few). Performance development aims to develop, maintain and improve your skills, knowledge and job performance in order to achieve individual career goals and contribute to the achievement of team and organizations.

Performance management helps people to get into action so that they achieve planned and agreed results. It is a work—and people— related activity, and focuses on what has to be done, how it is done and what is achieved. But it is equally concerned with developing people—helping them to learn—and providing them with the support they need to do well, now and in the future. The emphasis should be on managing performance throughout the year.

This will involve continuous monitoring and feedback and formal reviews, as described below:

It is also necessary to enhance what Alan Mumford (1989) calls, ‘deliberate learning from experience’, which means learning from the problems, challenges and successes inherent in people’s day-to-day activity. The premise is that every task individuals undertake presents them with a learning opportunity. This will be the case as long as they are encouraged to reflect on what they have done and how they have don’t it, and draw conclusions on what they need to do when they are next presented with a similar task or have to undertake a different task requiring the use of the newly acquired skills.

Support should also be provided on a continuing basis through coaching and counseling, and by providing the facilities and resources necessary to meet expectations. As Marchington and Wilkinson (1996) state, ‘performance management requires ongoing and unsolicited support in order to be effective; that is the telephone call or the “change” conversation just to check that all is going well, which many busy managers tend to overlook in their efforts to satisfy formal organizational requirements.’

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Continuous Monitoring and Feedback

Performance management does no more than provide a framework within which managers, individuals and teams work together to gain a better understanding of what is to be done, how it is to be done, what has been achieved, and what has to be done to do even better in the future.

Monitoring and review is an vital aspect of continuous improvement. Continuous monitoring and periodic reviews of the risk management approach supports the organization’s overall performance. They also present feedback to management and other interested parties, both in the organization and government wide.

Thus, continuous monitoring and feedback can perhaps said to be one of the most essential tool of performance management, and it bears frequent repetition as it is a on-going method of managing and developing performance standards which reflects normal good practices of direction setting, monitoring and measuring performance, providing feedback and taking action accordingly.

And indeed they are managerialist, in the sense that they promote the notion of continuous improvement to support the achievement of the purpose of the organization, and therefore of its management.

Individuals needs for job satisfaction, growth, security, recognition and reward have to be understood and reconciled with the needs of the organization. And the continuous process of managing performance throughout the year can be carried out in a way that respects different needs as well as recognizing mutual interests.

If people can be provided with the information they need to monitor their own performance, so much the better. It is not available readily; they can be encouraged to seek it. The aim is to provide intrinsic motivation by giving people autonomy and the means to control their work.

As stated by the American Compensation Association (1996), it is important to develop performance management on the basis of ‘open, honest, positive, two-way communication between supervisors and employees throughout the period’. From the viewpoint of performance, this means instant feedback to individuals and teams on the things they have done well or not so well.

Interim informal reviews can be held as needed – monthly, quarterly, etc. They can be used to offer more structure feedback and, importantly, to improve objectives and plans in response toss changing circumstances.